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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Herodotus, post: 4995593, member: 111387&quot;]I&#039;m pleased to see one&#039;s enthusiasm as a new-to-ancients collector.&nbsp; I can relate.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Coin Talk(Ancients) is a great place with some very helpful members.&nbsp; I&#039;m happy to have discovered this forum when first searching the internets while attempting to attribute and learn more information about unknown-to-me coin types.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s an example of an (unattributed)auction mix-lot that I won on eBay from an established coin dealer, but not one that specializes primarily in ancients.&nbsp; I was only a few months into collecting at this point. </p><p><br /></p><p>The lot was titled &quot;<b>H3</b> <b>Ancient Coins Mostly Roman Assorted Group 4 pccs&quot;</b>; w/ no other identifying information in the listing description.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199565[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199568[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I suspect that the dealer may have acquired a collection at their brick&amp;mortar location.&nbsp; Perhaps dad/uncle (or mom/aunt) was a collector that passed away, and a family member figured that a coin shop would be the simplest way to liquidate the entire collection.&nbsp; Being a long established eBay seller not too familiar with, nor wanting to take the time to attribute seemingly common ancient coins in VF(or less) condition, perhaps the dealer figured to allow eBay bidders to dictate the value.&nbsp; As such, I also imagined that the dealer likely underpaid considerably for the collection to ensure some level of profit.&nbsp; This, of course, was all my own wild speculation at the time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now at first look to the amateur collector, at a quick glance, these coins look to be a little on the rough side &amp; maybe harshly cleaned...Nothing too special but decent perhaps. </p><p><br /></p><p>Well, right off the bat, I recognized the portraits of the emperors Caligula and Vespasian. So I figured that I&#039;d give it a shot, being as they were bronze and kinda ruddy -- a somewhat lower risk as a gamble at the eBay saloon.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think it not necessary to state what I won the lot for.&nbsp; It went mostly under the radar for the entire duration.&nbsp; However, at least a couple other bidders knew what was being offered here, and all of the significant bidding happened at snipe time in the final last seconds.&nbsp; I still got it at a good price(less than my conservative max).</p><p><br /></p><p>While the Caligula (being in decent enough condition for me) helped to satisfy as a 12 Caesars space-filler, and the Byz and Vesp are also pretty cool; the real obscured gem for me was the unknown one marked as Ancient Coin Group H3.</p><p><br /></p><p>My surprise when I received the lot was that the 4th coin on the bottom(which I had a hard time making out in the picture) was a cool Q-series Roman Republic Minerva/Ship&#039;s prow Triens minted around the time of the 2nd Punic war. To boot, it is in pretty good shape.</p><p><br /></p><p>Attributing the type was a fun exercise in research that led me to RRC devoted websites, as well as information provided by Andrew McCabe(a well-known RRC collector and researcher).&nbsp; I was able to pinpoint it to the sub-type <i>Crawford 56/4.&nbsp; </i></p><p><br /></p><p>I was also inspired to learn the different denominations of Roman Republic bronze coinage, as well as how those denominations were denoted on coins as dots -- Three for Triens.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>What I&#039;m trying to convey here with my long-winded post is... eBay can be a decent auction site where cool finds can be had for those whose risk appetite may allow for it.&nbsp; Yet, I find it necessary to do a lot of varied research about an unknown coin(or coins), if I&#039;m going to spend more than the price of a six-pack of beer, or bottle of wine that I might need to consume to dull the pain of making a foolish mistake.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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